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Fast food uniforms were far more funky and colorful back in the 1970s
Ronald McDonald was not the only employee dressed like a clown.
Slinging burgers is not an enviable job. The pay is typically minimum wage and your clothes end up reeking of french fries. Still, many of us worked in the fast food industry at some point in our life. There are positives, like learning how to deal with customers and business heirarchy. That being said, those smells that would never wash out of your uniform….
Speaking of the uniforms, it could feel rather ridiculous slipping into those polyester get-ups.
In the 1970s, the typical fast food employee look was part court jester, part flight attendant. The color palette was deeply Seventies — browns, oranges, yellows — the same as wood panelling and shag carpeting. And, oh, were there stripes.
Let's take a trip back to a time when a Big Mac cost 65¢. Here are some of our favorite fast food unis of the 1970s.
Burger King
The Ketchup and Mustard Look
Image, left: sa_steve via Flickr / right: YouTubeIn the early 1970s, BK workers somewhat resemble the Jackson 5. Even the TV commercials depicted the staff as some kind of choreographed R&B group.
The Sunset and Chocolate Look
Image: Burger King / YouTubeCirca 1978, Burger King workers were looking more like cooked beef than condiments.
McDonald's
The Clinical Look
Image, left: atticpaper / right: McDonald's
Perhaps its the stiff posing, or maybe its the smock, but the employees on the right had an eerie drone vibe about them. The throwback paper caps were a remnant of the earliest McD's uniform.
Arches and Stripes
Image, left: McDonald's / right: sa_steve via FlickrBaby blue and burgundy became the standard colors in the late 1970s.
The color scheme carried over into the 1980s, which you can see in this amazing "Clean It" training video featuring a Michael Jackson impersonator. A different decade, but we had to share this.
Hardee's
Ring Around the Collar
Image: MatttheSaiyan / YouTube
Hardee's went with something closer to a baseball uniform, with a thick, white "headspoon" trim on creamsicle orange. There was something sci-fi about these, which is perhaps not ideal serving meat.
Taco Bell
Stripes, Stripes, Stripes!
Image, left: YouTube / right: Taco Bell via Pinterest
The Bell went with a more overt desert sunset motif. Yes, indeed, that is Patrick Duffy of Dallas fame in the commercial on the left.
Kentucky Fried Chicken
Bow Ties and Overalls
Image: KFC / YouTube
KFC workers mirrored the Colonel himself, with men sporting his trademark black string tie, and the restaurant's buckets, with women in red-and-white stripes.
Burger Chef
All Smiles
Image, right: Pinsdaddy
See? Emojis go way back, kids. The bygone chain featured a smiley face pattern before shirting to a standard Seventies brown-orange-yellow stripe look. Everyone wanted to dress like the San Diego Padres, it seems. Oh, and that is Eve Plumb, a.k.a. Jan from The Brady Bunch, in the 1977 ad on the left.
So, which outfit would you be most willing to wear?
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